


Between Dreams and Reality

by Measured_Words



Category: Diablotin
Genre: Andusk, Diablotin III, Dream worlds, Friends With Benefits, Friends who are Impatient for the Benefits Part, Hope, M/M, Metaphysics, Past Boden/Kalman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-28
Updated: 2015-07-28
Packaged: 2018-04-11 16:16:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4442582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Measured_Words/pseuds/Measured_Words
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kalman can't give up hoping for his word to be something better.  Pavo's hopes are a little more immediate.</p><p>For my "Trapped in a Dream" Trope Bingo square :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Between Dreams and Reality

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Nary and Balthcat for beta input!

Geographically, metaphysically – things had stabilized. The edges of the world were no longer being eroded away by the mists that swirled at the edges again. The trees looked and felt more real, not like weak copies of a very perfunctory original. There was space, again, and time, and he could feel a greater relief when he escaped the chaos of the city to visit Pavo at his estate.

"It feels like it's worse than ever," he confided to his friend. Pavo didn't seem perturbed, his eyes tracing after one of his newest guests, who was traipsing through the courtyard wearing only, and barely, a small towel, laughing as he chased after some other half-nude boy.

"Well of course it is – no one who gained anything wants to give it up. Ever, really." Pavo looked over from his ogling, and brushed the hair away from Kalman's face. The eyebrow piercing was the only one he'd kept. "Even you."

"That's not... what we're discussing." He knew his friend was teasing, trying to distract him from more serious thoughts so that they could better enjoy their visit. But he wasn't ready for that yet, and being reminded of his own failings, whether Pavo saw them that way or not, wasn't going to help shift the tone.

"Oh fine – though I hope to be well rewarded if I indulge you." This time he stroked along Kalman's lip, pinching it slightly. Kalman grabbed his hand and squeezed it. Pavo had mastered some trick of disassociation sometime after Fedra's climb to power. If he ever felt stressed about the state of their world, he very rarely let it interfere with his other interests.

"I'm not even sure who all understands what happened – who knows what this place still is. I can't keep track of all the factions, let alone try and... work towards any kind of resolution. I feel like the chances are worse now than they ever were."

"Mmm-hmm. It's because I'm right. Learning that your world, your grievances, are all artificial, created on a whim for some other power's amusement.... Who can say what any natural order might be? Everything's artificial, so the other side should be the ones to give in, as ever."

Kalman grumbled. "It doesn’t have to be that way."

"Well, of course it does. You can't expect people to just change what they feel, can you? No matter where those feelings come from. Even if they accept that their world is just a dream, does that mean that their experiences are any less real to them? Their hates...." Pavo smiled, sultry, "Their lusts... They can't just forget all that."

"No, I suppose not." He let Pavo pull him into his lap, though he caught his questing hands. "But - there has to be more than that. For us – for..."

"I know who you mean. I know the story. Maybe there is something grander to our...connections, because of our other selves.” He smiled wistfully for a brief moment before resuming his tone of bored indulgence. “But maybe not, hmm? Why should we be special? That's hardly fair. Everyone, before they took the queen away, had some roots in the... whatever you want to call that other world. Real? Solid? Prime?" Fingers still trapped, Pavo shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Other people could have special connections. And anyone who came later – who've lived real lives here, as real as they get – why can't they be the special ones?"

"I suppose that's what Father Willem hoped."

"Mm, maybe." This time Pavo sniffed his disinterest, rescuing one of his hands to comb it through Kalman's short curls. "I'm not worried though. One way or another, things will work themselves out." Gripping more insistently, he tilted Kalman's head for a kiss. "I'm quite sure we have enough dreamers."


End file.
